Mahbubur Rahman Khan

Although traffic congestion has become way too common in the capital, the Eid shopping spree and ongoing construction work of metro rail in the middle of roads has exacerbated its severity.

Ramadan has been a little different this time. Unlike the previous years, prices of most of the essential commodities have remained stable so far, except for fish, red meat and fruits.

The two landfills in the capital have almost reached their limit with no immediate remedy in sight. Mountains of garbage are being formed in the landfills at Matuail and Aminbazar and there are fears that the waste will spill over into adjacent areas.

The family planning directorate has been suffering from manpower crisis as large number of post have remained vacant for the last couple years thanks to the procrastination of different government bodies related to the recruitments.

Although tuberculosis (TB) infections have been a concern for Bangladesh for quite a long time, screening facilities are still not available in every upazila.

Biman high-ups, including some of its board members, have been misappropriating huge money through irregularities in tender process. On the other hand, some officials of CAAB, the aviation regulator, accept bribes from contractors, who are “looting money” by building poor-quality towers and boarding bridges, the Anti-Corruption Commission has found.

As the call for relocating the warehouses of chemicals and inflammable goods from Old Dhaka gets louder, an industries ministry probe committee claimed that there was no chemical factory or warehouse at the scene of Wednesday's devastating fire in Chawkbazar.

The grief for the loss of at least 67 lives in the chemical-fuelled Chawkbazar blaze is giving way to the fury against chemical factories and warehouses in Old Dhaka with the demand for their removal from the area getting louder.

A noble effort to help visually impaired pedestrians in Dhaka city is becoming pointless due to the insensitivity of some hawkers and the authorities concerned.

The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has come up with a grading system for restaurants on the basis of quality of food and overall hygiene of the establishments.

The Customs Intelligence claimed to have detected that Crescent Group laundered Tk 1,297.65 crore abroad against 657 fake export bills in collusion with some officials of Janata Bank's Imamganj branch in Dhaka.

Sumi Akhter was on the lookout for a skin lightening cream as she wanted to appear fairer at her sister's wedding just two weeks away.

Cleaners of both city corporations of Dhaka are putting extra labour into removing polls-time posters, but it seems residents are not getting a clean city anytime soon, as new posters and banners with congratulatory messages to elected MPs are replacing them.

The tussle in the Awami League camp of Munshiganj-3 seems to have subsided following a rebel campaigning for the nominee.

An initiative by Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), in an apparent push to reinforce traffic discipline on city streets following protests in August, has raised eyebrows and questions.

Plastic banners are everywhere -- on lampposts, walls, flyover pillars and footbridges. Politicians use them for their publicity.

The ongoing gas crisis is likely to linger for at least another week as engineers are finding it difficult to fix the technical problem in an LNG supply line in Cox's Bazar.

It opened to the public a year ago to this week, with promises of breathing life into suffocating traffic in one of the more congested parts of the capital. But the Moghbazar-Mouchak flyover has been left in the darkness -- literally and figuratively -- for months on end, putting commuters at risk and no one to be held liable.

A decade ago it was an important road between Danga Bazar and Paikordi of Narsingdi. It was also useful for residents of Narayanganj as part of the road goes through this district. When two bypass roads were built as its alternatives, this one fell almost to disuse. So, neither authorities nor locals cared much about the road and its adjoining land.

Right before the general election, some political parties and nomination seekers have begun pasting posters on the city's walls, defying a law prohibiting such acts.